Three Gorges Dam – The Chinese Dam That Slowed the Earth
Three Gorges Dam in China is a project started in1994 AD when China was looking for a clean and more efficient way to generate energy to meet the requirements of population growth. This helped a lot in the improvement of technology.
How did the dam slow the rotation of the Earth
The water accumulate caused the (moment of Inertia), which happened because of the dam body resistance and the large amount of water flowing on the Earth.
NASA estimated that the dam delays the Earth’s rotation about 0.06 microseconds. In fact, the Earth’s rotation was slowed down also due to other factors such as the location of the moon, earthquakes and climate changes.
Additionally, scientists have recently discovered that the Earth’s rotation affects time. So, every five years there is a millisecond longer in every day. And of course, these reasons led to the movement of the North Pole about 2 cm.
Information about the The dam
The Three Gorges Dam in China is considered one of the most important projects in the whole world.
It was built because of the large size of the Yangtze River, and the constant flooding of it especially during the rainy seasons.
The aim of building the dam was to improve the quality of life for the residents of Hubei Province. But unfortunately, it made things worse, especially on the rotation of the Earth.
So, we will give you some interesting facts about the Three Gorges Dam.
The history of the Three Gorges Dam
Leaders of the Kuomintang first proposed the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in the 1920s.
The outline began in 1955 AD when Prime Minister Engineer Li Ping finally persuaded the National People’s Congress to sign the dam decision in 1992 AD.
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But the project was rejected by third of the members. In addition, the World Bank rejected providing money to China to help in the project. This was in fear of serious environmental problems and other reasons.
Finally, the main wall was built in 2006 AD.
Dimensions of the three-lane dam
The Three-lane Dam is a concrete building with a straight top, 2335 meters long and 185 meters high, includes 28 million cubic meters of concrete and 463000 metric tons of steel.
As a result of the construction of the dam, a huge deep water reservoir was created, which allowed the sea freight trucks to cruise 2,250 km from Shanghai on the East China Sea, to the inland city of Chongqing. The final cost of the project was $35 billion.
Three Gorges Dam flood control
The Yangtze River caused continuous and catastrophic floods. As the Yangtze River is considered the third longest river in the world.
It is 6,357 kilometers, crossing Asia. And it saved millions of homes and lives as well as cities such as Wuhan and Shanghai.
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Finally, we talked in our article about the Three Gorges Dam, its history, and the most important points that made it one of the most important landmarks in the world.
